China Economy Forum

[Edison Chen]

but why would china need a failed currency like ringgit? history has shown that currency is not very stable.

China is building a loose and more flexible financial industry by introducing foreign capital to come in. It's a good chance for China's national banks to improve their competence and professional services.

It's more likely an investment instrument. High net worth Chinese people are increasing, they need to invest in international market.

It is not stable, but the trading volume is low.

Good news. I wonder if this is related to the Shanghai free trading zone.

Definitely it is.

 

[Irajgholi]

It's more likely an investment instrument. High net worth Chinese people are increasing, they need to invest in international market.

i do agree with your pov, but shouldnt investments be directed at something profitable? u are aware that bitcoin trading in china faced skepticism from the government because of its high volatility? in economics u need predictability, im active in forex myself so i know that since 2012 ringgit has experienced depreciation, because malaysia exports fell.

 

[bolo]

China is building a loose and more flexible financial industry by introducing foreign capital to come in. It's a good chance for China's national banks to improve their competence and professional services.

It's more likely an investment instrument. High net worth Chinese people are increasing, they need to invest in international market.

It is not stable, but the trading volume is low.



Definitely it is.

Its a good way for wealthy Chinese to lose money. Wtf is ringgit? Lol. I wouldn't touch that with a twenty foot pole

I rather buy houses in ghetto Detroit

 

[lcloo]

Malaysia and China Trade for 2013 is around 160 Billion US dollars, and China is Malaysia's Number one trade partner. Use of RMB and Ringgit will be more frequent and is eroding the use of US Dollar for the bilateral trade. It is inevitable that use of RMB and Ringgit will be on the increase in future thus establishing of Malaysian RInggit exchange centre in China comes naturally.

Ringgit is relative stable unlike the Iranian poster trying to potrayed. It is always at thr exchange range of around one Ringgit to two RMB for more than last 5 years. AGainst US Dollar it has been around the range of one USD for 3.10 to 3.30 Ringgit for many years.

 

[Irajgholi]

Malaysia and China Trade for 2013 is around 160 Billion US dollars, and China is Malaysia's Number one trade partner. Use of RMB and Ringgit will be more frequent and is eroding the use of US Dollar for the bilateral trade. It is inevitable that use of RMB and Ringgit will be on the increase in future thus establishing of Malaysian RInggit exchange centre in China comes naturally.

Ringgit is relative stable unlike the Iranian poster trying to potrayed. It is always at thr exchange range of around one Ringgit to two RMB for more than last 5 years. AGainst US Dollar it has been around the range of one USD for 3.10 to 3.30 Ringgit for many years.

i have to disagree with u, nothing against malaysia, but this is one of my jobs that im fairly successful at. anyway feel free to read these:

Profitable Currency pairs in the Forex
Most Profitable Currency Pair
The Most Profitable Groups Of Shares Or Currencies To Trade

just some basic intros.

as a matter of fact fluctuation is high relative to the base (almost 10 percent fluctuation in short period) that has also contrubuted to inflation in malaysia (Malaysia Inflation Rate | Actual Value | Historical Data | Forecast this i could understand for iran as the country is under severe international sanctions and suffer from braindead economic managers, but not for malaysia that is enjoying freedom of investment.

 

[Edison Chen]

Through this service, customers are able to leverage on the various trade financing and hedging instruments available in ringgit, which encompass letters of credit, financing of imports, exports, currency swaps and other services made available via Maybank’s wide network in Malaysia and the competitive ringgit funding it has to offer as the largest bank in Malaysia, the lender said.

~~~~~分割线~~~~~

Trade between China and Malaysia is increasing, but this kind of international trade always has interest fluctuation risk, because the USD is still the key currency for international settlements. Those export companies have to undertake the risk of loss on foreign trade account. It's the trade between China and Malaysia, so why use USD? It's time for China and more ASEAN countris to sign currency swaps agreement, it's good for China to make RMB an international currency.

The letter of credit serves as a guarantee to the seller that it will be paid regardless of whether the buyer ultimately fails to pay. In this way, the risk that the buyer will fail to pay is transferred from the seller to the letter of credit's issuer.

As what we can see, all the services is to guarantee the trade between China and Malaysia goes well. Because so many Chinese companies are investing overseas, they need assurance and guarantee to refrain from loss due to different regulations or foreign exchange risk.

 

[Edison Chen]

i do agree with your pov, but shouldnt investments be directed at something profitable? u are aware that bitcoin trading in china faced skepticism from the government because of its high volatility? in economics u need predictability, im active in forex myself so i know that since 2012 ringgit has experienced depreciation, because malaysia exports fell.

As the article stressed:

As for Malaysia’s exports data which was released on Friday, the Department of Statistics reported that both exports and imports increased by 14.4 and 14.8 per cent respectively in December from a year earlier.

Exports rose on the back of a weaker ringgit currency and mainly driven by higher electric & electronic product shipments and a surge in exports to China, Malaysia’s largest trade partner.

Also from Malaysia's Trade Statistics:

2013 Export Growth Boosted By Better Second Half Performance

The strong export growth of 14.4% in December 2013 marked the sixth consecutive month of export growth since July 2013. On the average, exports expanded by 8.9% in the second half of 2013, compensating for a lackluster first half performance. With this recovery, Malaysia’s exports for the full year 2013 grew by 2.4% or RM17.17 billion to RM719.81 billion.

Major contributors to this performance included:-

• Strong uptake by ASEAN especially to Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Myanmar and Lao PDR;
• Improved demand as a result of pockets of recovery in the European Union (EU) such as in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Poland;
• Growth in exports of manufacturing and mining sectors;
• Higher imports by Free Trade Agreements (FTA) partners such as Australia, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of Korea (ROK), Chile and New Zealand;
• New applications of semi-conductors driven by higher needs for digitalization, mobility, connectivity, energy efficiency and miniaturization, fuelled growth for electrical and electronic (E&E) exports; and
• Rising demand for other manufactured exports such as medical devices; manufactures of metal; chemicals and chemical products; as well as, machinery, appliances and parts.

Also according to Malaysia's trade performance 2012:

Among the top 5 trading partners, expansion in trade was recorded with ASEAN, an increase of 8.2%; the People’s Republic of China (PRC), ↑8% while trade with Japan decreased by 1%; the European Union (EU), ↓2.4%; and the United States of America (USA), ↓2.8%. Other countries which registered expansion in trade were Australia, ↑13.6%; India, ↑7.3%; the United Arab Emirates (UAE), ↑17.3%; and Republic of Korea (ROK), ↑0.9%.

You are right when you say Malaysia's export fell in 2012, but it's increasing with China. Export is still there but it is shifting from western countries to China with increasing consumption demand.

 

[lcloo]

I can't say more than what Edison Chen has justed posted.



As for the Ringgit's FX rate current and nexr few months, we expect a rebound in 2nd quarter 2014, but just wait and see, till then....

 

[Martian2]

TSMC Showing 20nm HKMG and 16nm FinFET Wafers at ARM TechCon - Legit Reviews

TSMC Showing 20nm HKMG and 16nm FinFET Wafers at ARM TechCon
Posted by Nathan Kirsch | Wed, Oct 30, 2013 - 4:31 PM

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is at ARM TechCon showing off 20nm Soc and 16nm FinFET-based development wafers. The 20 and 16nm nodes both posed significant hurdles for TSMC, so to see wafers being produced on those nodes is a good sign. The 20nm node is the first to use double patterning, requiring more masks and additional runs under an immersion lithography machine. The 16nm node represents TSMC’s first use of FinFETs (multi-gate or tri-gate architectures) for even lower power use and higher performance.

TSMC has taped out several 20nm HKMG processor designs and is ready for volume production in early 2014. TSMC expects to let customers start designing and taping out 16nm FinFET chips before the end of the year and production 16nm FinFET wafers to enter production a year later in Q1 2015.

 

[Martian2]

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), with its 20nm technology, is the world leader in ARM (RISC-based) chips for mobile computing. In comparison, Intel chips are CISC (ie. complex instruction set computing) based for desktop PCs.

----------

TSMC Begins Volume Production of Chips Using 20nm Process Technology

"TSMC Begins Volume Production of Chips Using 20nm Process Technology
January 16th, 2014 at 11:36 pm - Author Anton Shilov

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. on Thursday said it had begun mass production of chips using 20nm process technology ahead of its own schedule. The new fabrication process will help fabless chip designers (e.g., AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm, etc.) to create processors with higher transistor count, lower power consumption and improved performance.

TSMC’s 20nm technology (which the company calls CLN20SOC) is mainly designed for highly-integrated system-on-chip devices that benefit from increased transistor density. The fabrication technology relies on high-k metal gate technology that should ensure fairly high clock-rates of chips without increase of leakage currents. TSMC will offer only one version of the 20nm-class manufacturing process, which will help the company to ramp up volume production using the tech in a short period of time.

“We have two fabs, fab 12 and fab 14 that complete the core of the 20nm-SoC. As a matter of fact, we have started production. We are in the [high]-volume [20nm] production as we speak right now,” said C. C. Wei, co-chief executive officer and co-president of TSMC.

At present, certain modules of TSMC’s fabs 12 and fab 16 are producing chips using 20nm process technology. The fab 15 modules 3 and 4 will initiate production using 20nm process tech sometimes in May, 2014.

While TSMC is tight-lipped regarding nature of chips it makes using 20nm fabrication process, last year it said that the first five 20nm products will be aimed at mobile computing, CPU and PLD [programmable logic device] segments.

TSMC expects wafers processed using 20nm process technologies to account for around 10 per cent of this year’s wafer revenue. In the fourth quarter the 20nm fabrication process is projected to account for 20 per cent of TSMC revenue."

 

[Martian2]

China's SMIC is world's fifth-largest semiconductor chip foundry | IC Insights

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is China's largest semiconductor manufacturer. (Photo credit: Wafer manufacturing - Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation)

According to the latest data from IC Insights (see chart below), China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is the world's fifth-largest semiconductor chip foundry.

As China's largest semiconductor manufacturer, SMIC had a great year in 2013. SMIC revenue boomed year-over-year by 28% to total $1.97 billion.

There is more good news. SMIC has started initial production of 28nm chips.

----------

TSMC and GlobalFoundries Led Foundry Market in 2013 – IC Insights.

TSMC and GlobalFoundries Led Foundry Market in 2013 – IC Insights.

Top 13 Foundries Account for 91% of Total Foundry Sales in 2013
[01/29/2014 11:55 PM]
by Anton Shilov

[Note: IDM is an acronym for "integrated device manufacturer." An IDM manufactures semiconductor chips like a foundry and also sells the chips inside its own consumer electronics products.]

----------

SMIC Starts Supplying 28nm CMOS | Electronics360

"SMIC Starts Supplying 28nm CMOS
Peter Clarke
27 January 2014

China's leading indigenous chip manufacturer Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (Shanghai, China) has announced that it has completed the development of two manufacturing processes at the 28nm node and put its first 28nm multiproject wafer (MPW) run through a fab at the end of 2013.

SMIC is now able to supply 28nm polysilicon gate and 28nm high-k dielectric metal gate (HKMG) processes and said it has a library of over 100 cores available developed by third-party IP partners and internally at SMIC.

SMIC said the first MPW run was used by SMIC and customers for verification of process and circuits and that it would run more MPWs during 2014 but did not indicate how quickly it would move to volume production of 28nm wafers. Previously it had been reported that SMIC would gain first revenues from 28nm polysilicon-gate in 3Q14 and from 28 HKMG in 2H15.

SMIC is offering two 28nm processes in a manner similar to Taiwan foundries TSMC and United Microelectronics Corp. and no doubt in the hope it can take some of their business on price. TSMC has dominated the ramp up of 28nm foundry manufacturing and in the fourth quarter of 2013 28nm process technology was responsible for about one third of its sales of NT$145.81 billion (about $4.8 billion). According to IHS' forecasts, the pure-play foundry revenue potential for 28nm will continue to rise with a CAGR of 19.4 percent from 2012 to 2017.

The 28nm manufacturing processes have been mainly used for mobile and consumer equipment such as smartphones and tablet computers, set-top boxes and networking ICs. TSMC ramped the volume supply of 28nm wafers to customers in 2011 which puts SMIC about three years behind TSMC but only a couple of years behind Globalfoundries and UMC. (article continues)"

-----


SMIC Unveils 28nm Readiness and MPW Milestone | Design & Reuse

"SMIC Unveils 28nm Readiness and MPW Milestone

SHANGHAI, Jan. 26, 2014 -- Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC"，NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981) , China's largest and most advanced semiconductor foundry, announced today that its 28nm technology has been process frozen and the company has successfully entered Multi Project Wafer (MPW) stage to support customer's requirements on both 28nm PolySiON (PS) and 28nm high-k dielectrics metal gate (HKMG) processes. Over 100 IPs from multiple third party IP partners as well as SMIC's internal IP team are prepared to serve various projects from worldwide design houses that have been showing interest in SMIC 28nm processes.

28nm process technologies primarily target mobile computing and consumer electronics related applications, such as Smartphone, Tablets, TV, Set-top Boxes and networking. It provides customers high performance application processors, cellular baseband, wireless connectivity etc. According to IHS' forecasts, the pure-play foundry revenue potential for 28nm will continue to rise with a CAGR of 19.4% from 2012 to 2017.

'I am pleased to announce the successful 28nm process milestone, which enables SMIC to better position itself in engaging and serving mobile computing related customers," said Dr. Tzu-Yin Chiu, Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director of SMIC. "As the first foundry in mainland China to offer 28nm process technologies, this significant milestone demonstrates SMIC's continuous growing capabilities in offering leading foundry technologies to worldwide IC designers.'

"The first SMIC 28nm MPW shuttle included both 28PS and 28HKMG related customer products for verification, which was already launched at the end of 2013 as planned," said Dr. Shiuh-Wuu Lee, Executive Vice President of Technology Development of SMIC. 'By taking more MPW shuttles in 2014, we will continue to take more positive steps to strengthen and diversify our technology offerings and meet customers' growing demands on both advanced and differentiated technologies.'"

 

[antonius123]

@Martian,

So how many generation/years that China foundry left in term of technology by leading global competitors?

 

[Martian2]

TSMC, SMIC, IBM, Samsung, GlobalFoundries, and UMC. Four uncertainties. Also Intel's SoFIA.

@Martian,

So how many generation/years that China foundry left in term of technology by leading global competitors?

28nm (TSMC 2011, SMIC sometime in 2014) volume production
20nm (TSMC in January 2014) volume production
14/16nm (TSMC 16nm FinFET in fourth quarter 2014) risk production in Dec. 2013 with volume production in fourth quarter 2014
10nm (TSMC says they are ready to go in fourth quarter 2015) risk/trial production before ramp up

The second citation from Electronics360: "TSMC ramped the volume supply of 28nm wafers to customers in 2011 which puts SMIC about three years behind TSMC but only a couple of years behind Globalfoundries and UMC."

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the world leader in RISC-based ARM semiconductor chips for mobile phones and tablets. TSMC started volume production of 20nm in January 2014 (see post #3052 above). TSMC will begin volume production of 16nm FinFET (ie. 3D chip architecture) in the fourth quarter of this year.

I can only give you an answer based on the current snapshot. If SMIC is able to proceed as fast as TSMC then SMIC is three years behind TSMC, which introduced volume production of 28nm in 2011. GlobalFoundries and UMC did not start small-volume production of 28nm until early last year. They are both in the process of increasing their yield. This puts SMIC about two years behind GlobalFoundries and UMC.

SMIC, GlobalFoundries, UMC, and Samsung license the 28nm fabrication technology from IBM. IBM has shown test-wafers of 20nm and 14nm. However, it is not clear whether the IBM wafers were memory chips (which are simple repeated patterns) or the more advanced logic chips (which are more difficult to manufacture). With a few minor exceptions, TSMC generally does not manufacture memory chips due to the lower margin.

IBM's problem has always been taking the technology to build one cutting-edge wafer in the lab and transforming it into a reliable mass-manufacturing process. Ten years ago, IBM went into the foundry business to compete against TSMC. IBM wooed away TSMC's largest customer NVIDIA.

However, IBM failed miserably and was late to market by six months. Due to IBM's inability to reliably mass-manufacture the semiconductor chips on its wafers, ATI (which remained a TSMC customer) surpassed NVIDIA and became the world's largest graphics card seller for that year. NVIDIA learned its lesson and moved its orders back to TSMC.

The reason I can't give you a good answer is that there are too many uncertainties. IBM's 20nm and 14nm technology (both gate-last) are different from its 28nm technology (gate-first). IBM was stuck at 28nm for an extra two years in comparison to TSMC (which has been consistently gate-last). Can IBM make a smooth transition from gate-first 28nm to 20nm gate-last?

Without additional problems, IBM is currently two years behind TSMC. Technically speaking, IBM provides "consultation" services. However, the Common Platform Alliance members (ie. IBM, Samsung and GlobalFoundries) are all relying on IBM's expertise. IBM has individual licensing side-deals with UMC and SMIC.

The issue is further complicated by IBM's recent effort to sell its chip business.

In conclusion, there are four large uncertainties. Firstly, IBM has a history of encountering delays in transitioning from a single lab wafer to mass manufacture. Secondly, IBM's partners are currently two years behind TSMC and their yield (70%?) is probably still lower than TSMC (95%?). This means TSMC still has better technology at 28nm, lower cost for itself and customers per wafer, and higher profit margins. This gives TSMC an advantage to invest more money into R&D for the next generation of semiconductors.

Thirdly, can IBM make a smooth transition from 28nm gate-first to 20nm gate-last? Finally, will IBM's effort to sell its chip business result in delays for the Common Platform Alliance, UMC, and SMIC?

There is a fifth major problem. Let's say SMIC catches up to TSMC in manufacturing technology. Does that mean it's a level playing field? No. TSMC has 30 years of libraries, IP (intellectual property), and tools. That is the reason Intel's SoFIA chips will be manufactured at TSMC in 2015.

TSMC's advantages in addition to cutting-edge 20nm RISC-based process technology.

"TSMC is the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry’s leading process technology and the foundry’s largest portfolio of process-proven libraries, IP, design tools and reference flows."

----------

"Intel's SoFIA Could Be A Real Bombshell - Seeking Alpha

Dec 2, 2013 - SoFIA is Intel's integrated applications processor, cellular baseband, and ... The shocker, however, is that this chip will be built at TSMC."

----------

"How Intel is buying, building a piece of the tablet market | PCWorld

Jan 18, 2014 - Intel has an ambitious goal for 2014: get its Atom chips into 40 million tablets, ... Bay Trail until new Atom chips code-named Broxton and SoFIA come out in 2015. ... not in Intel's own fabs but by contract manufacturer TSMC."

 

[antonius123]

Thanks Martian, thats is enlightening

 

[cirr]

China Prices Steady in January

Feb. 13, 2014 8:54 p.m. ET

A vendor holding chickens at a market in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province on Jan. 9, 2014. China's consumer prices were steady in January. Reuters

BEIJING—China's consumer-price index rose 2.5% on year in January, the same as December's increase, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Friday.

The rise in the key inflation gauge exceeded the median 2.3% gain forecast by 11 economists in a survey by The Wall Street Journal.

The CPI also increased 1.0% in January from December. In December it rose 0.3% from the preceding month.

China's producer-price index fell 1.6% on year in January—quicker than the 1.4% fall in December.

The drop matched the median 1.6% decline forecast by 11 economists in a survey by The Wall Street Journal.

The PPI declined 0.1% in January from December. In December it was flat from the preceding month.

—Liyan Qi

China January CPI +2.5% on Year; Market Expected +2.3% - WSJ.com